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My Singing Monsters Wiki:Blocking Policy
Blocking, sometimes referred to as banning, is the act of preventing a user from editing the wiki. Only admins are able to block users, but any other user can contact an admin to suggest blocking a user. (That shouldn't be done without a good reason, of course.) Blocks are primarily used to prevent disruption to the wiki, rather than just to "punish" a user. Admins may use their discretion to decide how long the user should be blocked for, and what to block from a user. By default, blocking a user makes them not able to do anything on the wiki except edit their own message wall. However, it is also possible to block the user's message wall. This may be done if they are abusing their message wall, or if the user is a sockpuppet of another user. The purpose of leaving the message wall available is so the user can discuss the block with admins, not to continue chatting or doing other stuff on the wiki. Depending on the problem, a user who has done something wrong may get a warning rather than being blocked. At least the first time. In general, you may get blocked if you don't follow Wheaton's Law – "Don't be a jerk". Blocks can be temporary or permanent. Someone who comes back from a temporary block and continues to behave badly will be blocked again, usually for a longer time. This applies even if the "new" bad behaviour is different from the earlier bad behaviour. Permanent blocking is usually used only for people who appear to have nothing positive to contribute to the wiki, or who have shown a clear pattern of not being able to learn from temporary blocks. Users who are permanently blocked will never ever be welcomed back ever again. That's what "permanent" means. Attempting to evade a permanent block will result in the admins contacting the Wikia staff. Below is a list of different reasons for blocking. Vandalism Doing edits or contributions that appear deliberately abusive is considered vandalism. This includes adding false information to the wiki. Attempting to do vandalism may result in a warning against vandalism, or in an immediate block. Repeat offenders face blocks that rapidly get longer. Admins may use their discretion to block longer if needed. We understand that everyone makes mistakes occasionally. And once in a long while, there is a bug in the wiki itself that makes edits go wrong. (Even the admins have had this happen to them.) The difference between these kinds of accidents and intentional damage is usually pretty obvious. Please also see the Policy section on vandalism. Copyright issues Big Blue Bubble is strict on copyright, so don't abuse it. They need to make money to make all of your games run smoothly and more fun. Don't try to ruin their copyright by making their paid items free. We don't want to ruin the My Singing Monsters franchise, so don't ruin their copyright. Friend Codes abuse Attempting to abuse the rules listed on Friend Codes, Friend Codes (Dawn of Fire), or Tribe Contacts will get you blocked easily. The rules are explicitly written on the pages, so there isn't a lot of excuse for breaking them. You will generally get a first warning about pushing your friend code/tribe contact to the top without following the rules. Repeat offenders face blocks that rapidly get longer. Anti-social behavior Sometimes a user may have anti-social behavior, such as bullying another user. Depending on how bad the anti-social behavior is, the offender may get a warning. Repeating bad behaviour after a warning will pretty much guarantee a block. More serious bad behaviour may result in a block without warning. Further offenses will get you a longer block. Threatening another user, or an admin, is likely to lead immediately to a permanent block. It will usually also be reported to Wikia staff, which may lead to the person being banned from all of Wikia. Many kinds of threats are actually illegal, which can have real-life consequences. Please see Wikia's Terms of Use. Please be a bit careful about requesting the admins to block another person. It's okay to point out a problem. If you have reason to think that the admins have given someone a block that's too short because they haven't noticed some evidence, it's okay to point that out. But demanding that the admins block someone, who hasn't done anything seriously wrong, can be considered to be a kind of bullying. Swearing This wiki is designed to be a family-friendly environment. Profanity will often lead to a block, even if it's "censored" by replacing vowels with asterisks or things like that. If the profanity shown is of a highly-offensive nature, the user adding it will get blocked immediately. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry are absolutely not tolerated here. Block times vary, but more offensive swearing often leads to longer blocks. A few people have managed to get permanently blocked because of their very first message, because is was absolutely unacceptable behaviour. There are plenty of nice people to fill our community; we don't have any need for horrible people. Sockpuppetry Attempting to abuse policy by making multiple accounts to repeat the abuse will lead you to get blocked further. The sockpuppet(s) will be blocked, while the sockmaster will have their block increased drastically. This also applies to someone who someone who tries to use a sockpuppet account just to get around a block. If someone keeps doing that, we may contact Wikia staff to ask that the person be blocked more generally. Blocking is very much like a "time out", and if someone keeps refusing to obey the "time out", they start to lose toys, so to speak -- that is, the privilege of using Wikia. Violence in the RPs There are a number of "role-playing games" (or "RPs") in the Fun and Games forum area. In these, wiki users make up and act out a story, using characters that they have created. It's important to remember that this wiki is supposed to be family-friendly. The expected level of violence in these discussions is not more than Saturday-morning cartoon style. Characters don't get killed or seriously injured, and graphic violence is not tolerated. Offenders will be blocked. If things get too out of hand, the entire discussion may be deleted, so it's in the interest of the other players to try to keep things nice. Newbies and Blocks Someone who is new to the wiki and immediately starts behaving badly is likely to be treated more firmly than someone who has a generally good history here but has made a mistake. A disruptive newbie is seen as having less potential to be a positive member of our community. Someone who comes here just to complain about how they have been treated on some other wiki will probably get blocked immediately. We don't appreciate attempts to drag "drama" here from elsewhere. Similarly, if someone shows up here just to support a friend who has been blocked here -- demanding that their friend be unblocked, for example -- they will probably get blocked themselves. As for people getting upset about that... if they have no interest in MSM, why should they care if they're blocked from this wiki? Some people don't want to be blocked, just because they don't like being blocked, not because they want to actually do anything. From our point of view, that's not very constructive. If someone comes here from some other wiki to cause trouble, the admins are likely to look at that person's history on other wikis. If we see that someone has a bad history elsewhere, we are likely to give them less benefit of any doubt here. Some people seem to think that they can only be punished here for things that happen right here -- that the admins "aren't allowed" to take into account what people have done on other wikis. This is not the case. Just like anywhere else on the Internet, a bad reputation can follow you around. Somebody who has a clear pattern of horrible behaviour elsewhere may even be blocked preemptively here. Stalking the Admins If someone has been blocked here, and decides to bother the admins by going to other wikis to complain at them, a couple of things are likely to happen. First, the block here will be increased. Second, if necessary, we may contact Wikia staff to ask them to stop the harrassment. Stalking can be grounds for someone to be blocked from all of Wikia, not just this wiki. (And yes, that has happened. Several people who have followed admins to other wikis, to complain at them there because of being blocked here, really have been blocked from all of Wikia.) If you have been blocked here, and the block still allows you to comment on your own message wall here, you can discuss the matter with an admin on your message wall. This should be done only for a very good reason, such as facts that you feel have not been taken into consideration. If you are blocked even from your own message wall, that means that the admins don't want to hear from you, at all, until the block is over. Category:Policy